


Breaking the Rules

by LiraelClayr007



Series: 31 Days of Ficmas - 2019!! [16]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Jack is a good wingman, Jealous Doctor (Doctor Who), Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:40:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21878272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiraelClayr007/pseuds/LiraelClayr007
Summary: Jack slings an arm across her shoulders and murmurs right into her ear. “You’re being too subtle, Rose. You’ve tried being nice. I think it’s time to be a little naughty.”She can feel her face heat. “I’m not--”He squeezes her shoulder, a sideways hug. “Yes you are, Rose. Sometimes it’s okay to break the rules. This is absolutely one of those times.” He kisses her cheek and backs toward the corridor to his room. “Go on now, I’ll make myself scarce.”***In which Rose is pining, the Doctor is jealous, and Jack is a good wingman.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: 31 Days of Ficmas - 2019!! [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559875
Comments: 14
Kudos: 101
Collections: 31 Days of Ficmas 2019





	Breaking the Rules

“Don’t you worry that he can feel your eyes on him?”

Rose jumps, startled by Jack’s voice. “What’s it matter if I’m looking at him?”

Jack laughs, low and suggestive. “You’re not looking at him. You’re undressing him with your eyes.”

Her eyes widen. “Jack!”

With a smirk, he says, “I notice you’re not denying it.”

“I--”

Jack slings an arm across her shoulders and murmurs right into her ear. “You’re being too subtle, Rose. You’ve tried being nice. I think it’s time to be a little naughty.”

She can feel her face heat. “I’m not--”

He squeezes her shoulder, a sideways hug. “Yes you are, Rose. Sometimes it’s okay to break the rules. This is absolutely one of those times.” He kisses her cheek and backs toward the corridor to his room. “Go on now, I’ll make myself scarce.”

Panic wells up inside her, but Jack must see it because he takes her by the shoulders, gently, and says, “He wants it too, you know. He watches you more than you watch him. Which, by the way, I can hardly believe is possible. You two really need to work things out, if only so I don’t have to watch you pining for each other.”

She opens her mouth to protest but he puts a finger to her lips. “Go on. Get your man. Or, your Time Lord, I guess. If you don’t…” He looks over her shoulder at the Doctor then looks back at her with a smirk, “maybe I’ll take a shot at him myself.” He winks.

Before she can answer he gives a gigantic fake yawn and says loudly, “I’m off to bed. Have fun, you crazy kids.” She shoots daggers at him with her eyes, thankful that the Doctor is behind her, but Jack just grins over his shoulder and saunters down the corridor.

“What was that about?” the Doctor asks.

“Jack being Jack,” says Rose.

“Ah. I try not to pay too much attention to our Captain Jack, he’s got a big enough head already.”

“He does that.”

Rose tries to make it look like she’s aimlessly wandering the console room but ends up near the Doctor. She perches on the edge of the jump seat, thinking. Break the rules, Jack had said. But what _are_ the rules? She’s not at all sure about that.

Is a human falling in love with a Time Lord against the rules? It’s a bit late to worry about that.

“I had fun today,” she says. “Sometimes it’s nice to just wander around and not get into trouble.”

“The trouble’s not so bad,” he says, eyes on the scanner. “We always seem to get through it. And it’s good exercise.”

She pushes herself off the jump seat, walks over to stand next to the Doctor. “Mostly I don’t mind the runnin’,” she says, reaching out to rest a hand on his arm. She can feel the muscles, tense and defined, under his skin. “I usually get to hold your hand.”

His eyes flick towards her, just a small glance, then he pulls his arm away. “Last time we had to run you held hands with Jack.”

Somehow she manages to keep her face blank, but inside she’s grinning. He’s actually jealous!

“Doctor. You were on the other side of a crowd. Jack was next to me. We were running to _you_.”

He makes a harumphing noise but doesn’t say anything.

“We had to hold hands so we didn’t lose each other.”

She sees his jaw tighten.

It’s difficult, but she manages to keep the laughter out of her voice. “We ran through a semi-hostile crowd to get to you. Separate, the crowd would have seen me as an easy target.”

“You don’t need Jack to take care of you!”

She almost jumps at the fierceness in his tone. “Of course I don’t. But most people look at me and see a frail human woman. And together Jack and I looked formidable enough that they left us alone.”

“Either that or you were too fast for them,” he mutters. She’s never heard him so petulant.

“Doctor. Are you _jealous_?” She knows he is, but wonders what he’ll say.

He says nothing.

“There’s no need to be jealous, you know. Jack is the annoying big brother I always wanted but never had. And besides…” She steps closer, right into his personal space, and puts her hand back on his arm. This time she runs her fingertips across his skin, slowly, deliberately. “Jack is not...you.”

The Doctor goes still; he doesn’t just stop moving, he goes completely still, unnaturally still, statue still. She wonders how long he can stay so perfectly motionless. How long he can go without a breath.

She steps even closer, close enough that she can feel his body heat. The only sign that he isn’t a statue is his eyes fluttering closed. “No,” she says, more firmly, harshly, than she’d meant to. So she adds, in barely a whisper, “Please. Look at me, Doctor.”

And then he breathes again, a ragged, broken breath, before he opens his eyes and tilts his face down towards hers. “There you are,” she says, a small smile touching her lips. 

She gets lost in his eyes for a moment. Or an hour. Sometimes it’s hard to tell; playing with time does odd things to her internal clock. His eyes are a battlefield--she sees desire and fear and hope and pain, all warring to come to the forefront. But he’s still silent, unable or unwilling to get any words out. So she does it for him.

“I know you’re thinking about my tiny human lifespan,” she says, reaching up to cup his face in her hands. “But I don’t care about that. Isn’t it better to have today than to be _almost_ and _not quite_?” When she ghosts a thumb across his lips he gasps, his eyes searching her face for something. “You have to know you’re all I want. This life, this TARDIS, they’re just icing on the cake. All I want is you.”

“Rose--”

“Please,” she says again, but this time the word breaks in her throat. “You don’t really want to talk me out of this, do you?” She looks up at him, biting her lower lip.

He’s quiet for so long she thinks he may not answer, but then he whispers, “No. I should, I should want to take you right back to London and stay far away from you. I’m no good for you, Rose Tyler.” He pauses, then lets out a long, shaky breath. “But I can’t. No matter what I tell myself I can’t stop wanting you.”

She smiles so big it almost hurts. “We’re good for each other. You’ve got to see that.”

He nods, once, firm and precise. And then he has one hand in her hair and the other on the small of her back, pulling her against him. It’s a heady feeling; she’s been hugged by the Doctor before, but this time she feels like she’s standing at the edge of a precipice getting ready to hold hands and jump. Because he’s offering her more than time and space. He’s offering himself.

“You can kiss me now,” she says. She’d meant to sound coy, but she mostly sounds giddy. That’s alright. Her heart pounds in her chest and the air around them almost crackles with the anticipation. The hand on her back suddenly slides across until his arm is wrapped around her; she feels herself being lifted up and set on the edge of the console. She has a moment to think that this maybe isn’t the safest place to sit--she feels at least one button give and a lever change positions--but she decides the TARDIS can take care of herself and then his lips are pressed against hers and every thought just stops.

The universe is changing, expanding forever outward and collapsing in to this one place, this one time. His arm pulls her tight to his chest, trying to erase any space between them. She helps, her arms around his neck, the fingers of one hand toying with his close-cropped hair. It’s so soft.

He smells like leather and time.

She never knew time had a smell, but when she’s this close, breathing him in, she knows it couldn’t be anything else.

She’s not sure how long the kiss lasts. It could be ten seconds, it could be two years. Honestly she doesn’t care if she lost two years of her life kissing the Doctor; she can’t think of anything better. She’s breathing hard when he pulls away, and she nearly falls off the console chasing his lips. He laughs, and in the laugh and in his eyes she hears what he’s not saying out loud: “Take a breath. We’ve got time.”

**Author's Note:**

> 31 Days of Ficmas || Day 16 - Naughty and/or Nice
> 
> I'm so far behind! It's been hard to write, what with working and dealing with the holidays. But I'll persevere! I'm visiting my in-laws next weekend, which means I'll be hiding myself away to write as often as possible. 😜


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